Global Outlook 2025: Europe Faces a New Reality at Arendalsuka
As geopolitical tensions deepen and the global order grows increasingly transactional, Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Espen Barth Eide, delivered a clear message at Global Outlook 2025 during Arendalsuka: Europe must step up.
-How do we balance the security dimensions to partnerships with other dimensions? The answer is a stronger European cohesion and that seems to be happening, Eide told the audience at Arendal Kulturhus on Tuesday.
Wake-up call
-We see that we are now having a kind of a wake-up call. Some Europeans, ourselves included, left too much to the US, left too much to the defence commitment to the US. We maybe were too comfortable that the system would continue eternally, he sais.
The event, a high-level discussion on Europe’s future in an increasingly fragmented world, brought together political leaders, policy experts, and international thinkers. The Global Outlook program also featured historian Philipp Blom, activist Colombe Cahen-Salvador, and a panel on the rising tide of disinformation with Nina Jankowicz, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the American Sunlight Project, and Oksana Brovko, CEO of the Association of Independent Regional Press Publishers of Ukraine. But it was Eide’s remarks on Europe’s strategic autonomy that resonated most strongly — especially his warning against complacency and his call for Europe to take a more assertive role in shaping the global future.
Urgency and complexity
Eide’s speech underscored both the urgency and complexity of the moment, outlining two parallel challenges for the continent:
-We need to do two things at the same time: One is to strengthen the European cohesion, the intra-European work. The second challenge is Europe’s role on the global arena. I believe that cooperation is better than conflict.
Linking to Agder
Linking his message to the local economy, Eide highlighted the deep integration of southern Norway’s industries with European value chains.
-Here in Agder, many companies are deeply involved in European value chains, meaning we produce products that are important to other companies’ final products. That is connected to the EEA but also needs a global connection.
As the EU and EEA countries face shifting alliances and mounting security challenges, the question posed in Arendal remains open: Can Europe act decisively enough to secure both its unity and influence in a volatile world?
See the whole speach here, and the other speakers
;){kind=link}
